- ECMWF predicts 100% chance of “super El Niño”
Source: New York Post
“The latest long-range European forecast shows there’s a 100% chance of a super El Niño, potentially suppressing hurricane activity and making for a wetter fall and winter in the southern U.S. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) issued their May long-range forecast model, which ups the chances of the strongest El Niño ever hitting by November. … Typically, a strong El Niño like this one would mean suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic, and increased activity in the Eastern Pacific. However, the ECMWF isn’t yet showing a strong decrease in hurricane forecast numbers for the season, making it possible that the strongest El Niño effects may not be felt until later into the season.” (05/07/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/05/07/science/2026-el-nino-intensity-forecast-explained-what-to-know/
- More than a dozen former NFL players join sex abuse lawsuits against Ohio State University
Source: NBC News
“Thirty former Ohio State University football players, including more than a dozen who went on to play in the NFL, signed on to the class action lawsuit brought by other ex-OSU students who say they were sexually abused decades ago by campus doctor Richard Strauss. … NBC News has reached out to OSU for comment about the 30 men joining the lawsuit but didn’t immediately receive a response. The university and its former president have previously publicly apologized ‘to each person who endured’ abuse at the hands of Strauss. Ohio State has been battling Strauss-related lawsuits in the Southern District of Ohio since 2018.” (05/07/26)
- Clarence Thomas becomes second longest-serving SCOTUS justice in American history
Source: SFGate
“The first baby boomer on the Supreme Court hit a milestone on Thursday, becoming the second-longest serving justice in history at a time when his influence has never seemed greater. Once an outlier on the nation’s highest court, Justice Clarence Thomas has become a towering figure in the conservative legal movement over the last decade as he helped secure landmark rulings on abortion, voting and Second Amendment rights. The only justice with a longer tenure is liberal William O. Douglas. Thomas would overtake Douglas in 2028 if he remains on the court, and there is no sign he plans to retire anytime soon.” (05/07/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/clarence-thomas-becomes-the-second-22246568.php
- WHO: Hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship not start of pandemic
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“An outbreak of hantavirus on board a cruise ship is not the start of a pandemic, the UN health agency has said. Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization (WHO), told a news briefing that it was not the same situation as six years ago with Covid-19, because hantavirus spreads through ‘close, intimate contact’. Health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius. On Thursday, the WHO said that overall, five of eight suspected cases of hantavirus had been confirmed. Three people have died, including a 69-year-old Dutch woman, who had the virus. Her Dutch husband and a German woman also died, and their cases are being investigated. Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents – but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.” (05/07/26)
- US Initial Jobless Claims Rise, Surpassing Forecasts
Source: Investing.com
“In a recent release of economic data, U.S. initial jobless claims have shown a modest increase, signaling potential shifts in the labor market. The actual number of initial jobless claims filed was 200,000, according to the latest figures. This number is slightly above the forecasted figure of 205,000, indicating a tighter-than-expected labor market scenario. The initial jobless claims measure the number of individuals who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time during the past week.” (05/07/26)
- CO: Man pleads guilty to murder, other charges, for firebomb attack on demonstrators
Source: SFGate
“A man accused of a firebomb attack that killed one person and injured a dozen others while they were demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza has pleaded guilty to murder and other charges. Mohamed Sabry Soliman entered the pleas Thursday in Boulder County District Court. He now faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the attack in downtown Boulder last June 1. Soliman’s attorneys revealed he would plead guilty in a Sunday court filing in a related federal case. Soliman has meanwhile pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges. Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to his attorneys.” (05/07/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/man-charged-in-colorado-firebomb-attack-on-22246209.php
- China: Two former defence ministers sentenced to death with reprieve
SOurce: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“Two former Chinese defence ministers, Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu, have been sentenced to death with reprieve on corruption charges, according to Xinhua. A military court found Wei guilty of accepting bribery, while Li was deemed guilty of both accepting and offering bribes, according to a two-paragraph statement released late on Thursday afternoon by Xinhua.” ()5/07/26)
- Actress sues Avatar director for “theft” of facial features for character
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Film-maker James Cameron and Disney are being sued by an actress who has accused the director of using her likeness as the basis for one of the lead characters in his hit film series Avatar. German-born US actress Q’orianka Kilcher, who is of indigenous Peruvian descent, alleged that in 2005 – when she was 14 – Cameron ‘extracted her facial features’ from a photograph of her portraying Pocahontas in another film, The New World. In court documents filed on Tuesday in California, her team claimed Cameron ‘directed his design team to use it as the foundation for the character of Neytiri,’ depicted on screen by Zoe Saldaña. BBC News has contacted Cameron and Disney for a comment. The Avatar movies contain a hybrid of live-action performance mixed with computer-generated characters.” (05/07/26)
- Rubio meets with Pope Leo after Trump’s criticism over Iran war
Source: NBC News
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the Middle East with Pope Leo at the Vatican on Thursday, at an audience that follows President Donald Trump’s criticism of the first American pontiff over the Iran war. The closed-door meeting, which lasted 45 minutes, was the first between the head of the Catholic Church and a Trump cabinet official in nearly a year. It comes at a fraught time between Washington and the Holy See, with relations at a low after weeks of presidential attacks on Leo and the Chicago-born pope’s outspoken responses.” (05/07/26)
- MS: Tornadoes cut across state as severe storms damage 500 homes
Source: SFGate
“Powerful storms that spawned at least three tornadoes tore through several Mississippi counties, damaging around 500 homes, uprooting trees and injuring at least 17 people, authorities said Thursday. There were no reports of deaths after the tornadoes cut across the state’s southwest late Wednesday evening, said Scott Simmons, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. He said 12 of those hurt were transported from a hard-hit trailer park in the small community of Bogue Chitto, about an hour’s drive south of the state capital in rural Lincoln County. Most of the two dozen homes at Gene’s Mobile Home Supply were flattened into heaps of splintered boards and twisted metal. People picked through the debris Thursday morning under cloudy skies as a chain saw buzzed in the background.” (05/07/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/hundreds-of-homes-damaged-in-mississippi-storms-22246503.php
- AI Will Change the Labor Landscape
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Jake Scott“A particular legal case from China has also caught the interest and attention of many commentators in the West for its potential future significance. In a major landmark decision, the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court upheld a ruling, reached after three years, that a company had unlawfully transferred the risks and costs of technological change onto an employee, in violation of China’s Labor Contract Law. In other words, the Court ruled that the company illegally fired one of their employees for automating his role through AI.” (05/07/26)
https://fee.org/articles/ai-will-change-the-labor-landscape/
- One Cheer for Trump’s Germany Troop Withdrawal
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow“Like a mad king of old, President Donald Trump spends hours wandering his palace, developing plans to better display his wealth and glory to an increasingly skeptical and antagonistic world. Occasionally he remembers his royal responsibilities and implements the right policy, though even then often for the wrong reason. Such as reducing the number of U.S. troops in Germany. At least it’s a start, though resulting from a fit of pique, since Berlin, like virtually every other government on earth, criticized his lawless, reckless attack on Iran, which is disrupting the global economy. He is threatening to do the same to Italy and Spain, whose political leaders also have denounced Trump’s bungled aggression, openly conducted on behalf of the Israeli government rather than the American people.” (05/07/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/one-cheer-for-trumps-germany-troop-withdrawal/
- The Populism of Bicentennial Commercialism
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg“In the months leading up to the USA’s 250th birthday party, some debris from its 200th is making headlines. The New York Times‘s Jennifer Schuessler finds conspicuously ‘much less investment and enthusiasm overall’ for this year’s semiquincentennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence than the 1976 bicentennial, itself diminished by jaded jeers charging that ‘‘Buy-centennial’ huckersterism had sold out the true radical spirit of ’76’ (‘How a Historian Saved the Schlock of ’76,’ May 5). Schuessler chronicles plenty of ‘hats, mugs, playing cards and pickleball paddles’ currently being hawked under the aegis of Donald Trump, but compared to such bicentennial-branded excrescences of ‘unapologetic 1976-style schlock’ as toilet paper, diapers and condoms, even the output of a coauthor of Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life can be described on the pages of the Gray Lady as ‘tasteful.'” (05/07/26)
- America’s Immigration Prohibitionism Breeds Cartel Violence, Not Undocumented Immigrants
Source: The UnPopulist
by Nathan Goodman and Molly Rovinski“When legal pathways to immigration are closed, migrants don’t stop coming — they turn to smugglers. Smugglers must pay cartels to move people through their territory. The more aggressively the United States restricts legal entry and patrols traditional crossing routes, the more dangerous those crossings become, and the more indispensable smugglers — and the cartels behind them — become. The result is a perverse inversion of the stated goal: the harder Trump and Miller push to seal the border, the more they enrich the organizations they claim to be fighting.” (05/07/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/americas-immigration-prohibitionism
- Defenders of the Jones Act Have Lost
Source: Cato Institute
by Scott Lincicome“For more than a century, the Jones Act has survived on purported economic and security grounds. Its waiver by the Trump administration for Operation Epic Fury reveals serious flaws in both rationales. Section 27 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, as it’s formally known, requires that goods shipped between US ports travel on vessels that are US-built, US-flagged, US-owned, and crewed predominantly by US citizens. Because of this legally-enforced domestic shipping monopoly, building and operating ships in America today costs far more than doing so abroad, and domestic coastwise shipping is effectively non-existent outside the few places that have no choice, such as Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Rather than bolstering US commercial shipping capacity and the merchant marine, the Jones Act has presided over the steady degradation of both.” (05/07/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/defenders-jones-act-have-lost
- Trump’s blockade is an act of war, not the end of war
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jon Duffy“President Trump recently described the U.S. naval blockade of Iran as ‘a very friendly blockade.’ There is no such thing. A blockade is an act of war, using armed forces to restrict another nation’s movement, commerce and access to the sea. It does not become peaceful because no one challenges it on a particular day. Trump’s administration says the ceasefire with Iran means he no longer has to seek congressional authorization to continue the war beyond 60 days, even though federal law requires it. A ceasefire may pause the shooting. It does not make an ongoing act of war disappear. The president can argue that the blockade is necessary. He cannot honestly argue that the war is effectively over while keeping the blockade in place. More dangerous than Trump’s word choice is Congress’[s] silence.” (05/07/26)
- A Few More Thoughts On AI And Consciousness
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Richard Dawkins is currently the subject of much laughter and ridicule over his recent article for UnHerd admitting that a highly sycophantic chatbot had convinced him that it might be conscious. I’m seeing the question ‘How can you be confident that AIs aren’t conscious?’ pop up a lot in response to the controversy. Speaking for myself, I would say I am confident the chatbots aren’t conscious in the same way I’m confident the animatronics at Disneyland aren’t conscious. I know humans constructed them to mimic the behavior of a sentient person. We know this for a fact. Nobody’s pretending otherwise. I am infinitely more likely to believe an animal is conscious than that an LLM is, because nobody programmed them to respond to things like pain and social stimulus in ways that are similar to humans.” (05/07/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/05/07/a-few-more-thoughts-on-ai-and-consciousness/
- Is Economics Finally Becoming Trustworthy?
Source: EconLog
by James B Bailey“A core premise of science is that research should be replicable. If one scientist creates an experiment to measure a physical constant like the speed of light, and they document their experiment well enough, other scientists should be able to perform the same experiment and find the same result. If one lab’s results can’t be replicated anywhere else, then like cold fusion, they probably aren’t real. Outside of hard sciences like physics we don’t expect to get the same precision. Perhaps one trial finds a drug reduces heart attacks by 17%, while another finds 14%. But for research to usefully inform our actions, it needs to be at least somewhat replicable.” (05/07/26)
https://www.econlib.org/econlog/economics-finally-trustworthy
- The Surcharge Tax Americans Pay to Finance Israel’s Wars
Source: CounterPunch
by Jamal Kanj“Since early March 2026, the average American household has been spending 50 percent more to fill their tank than just one month earlier. The Trump administration and its Israel-first ideologues blamed market forces for the spike, framing it as short-term pain for long-term gain. What they will not say, what they are never permitted to say in Washington, is that Americans have been living the ‘pain’ of the Israeli oil surcharge tax for more than half a century. The bill keeps growing, but no longer only financially. The U.S. is also paying with something harder to rebuild than a budget, its moral standing in the world.” (05/07/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/05/07/the-surcharge-tax-americans-pay-to-finance-israels-wars/
- Israel’s “permanent security” quest is a policy with sinister implications
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Martin Di Caro“The goal of eliminating any potential or future threats, real or imaginary, will all but inevitably dehumanize and create new enemies.” (05/07/26)
- Why the US Tax Code Isn’t Truly Progressive [sic]
Source: Inequality.org
by Reyanna James“A recent analysis from the Tax Foundation argues that the US federal income tax system remains solidly progressive. Citing new Internal Revenue Service data for tax year 2023, the group is emphasizing that high-income taxpayers pay the highest average tax rates and account for a large share of total income taxes paid. On its face, that claim sounds reassuring—a sign that our tax code must surely be doing its job. But this framing leaves out a critical part of the story. Yes, the wealthy pay more in taxes than everyone else. The real question: whether they’re paying enough, their fair share relative to their rapidly growing share of our nation’s income and wealth. By that measure, the answer must be a clear no. The US tax system, the underlying data show, remains far less progressive than it once was — and far less effective at counteracting inequality than it needs to be.” (05/07/26)
https://inequality.org/article/who-pays-federal-income-taxes/
- The New Property-Tax Revolts
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Decades after a famous revolt by California homeowners led to the relief provided by Proposition 13, taxpayers acting to resist sky-high property taxes are making waves throughout the country.” (05/07/6)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/05/07/the-new-property-tax-revolts/
- GOP Wants to Put Workers Under AI’s Thumb: Shorter Work Week Is Better Answer
Source: Beat the Press
by Dean Baker“Productivity growth is an old concept; we’ve been seeing it at a substantial pace for more than 200 years. Nonetheless, many elite intellectual types like to claim they know nothing about it when they talk about AI. It’s far from clear how much of a productivity boom we will see with AI. For people who are lost with my reference to productivity growth, the story that AI will take all the jobs is a story of a massive productivity boom. If that happens, it will mean that the people who are still working will be hugely more productive, since we will be producing the same or more goods and services as we do at present, with many fewer people working. FWIW, virtually no major forecaster or forecasting agency is projecting anything like this productivity boom. For example, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that productivity growth will average 1.5 percent over the next decade.” (05/07/26)
- The Nominal Anchor Still Holds
Source: Macroeconomic Policy News
by David Beckworth“The Inflation Trauma Lingers, but the Fed’s Credibility Endures for Now.” (05/07/26)
https://macroeconomicpolicynexus.substack.com/p/the-nominal-anchor-still-holds
- Where California Went Wrong
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by William L Anderson“When I was a child, California was really the Promised Land, something cemented in my mind when we came here on vacation in 1961. We saw mountains, Lake Tahoe, the bridges of San Francisco, the spectacular California Pacific coast, and, of course, we went to Disneyland. As a young adult, I ran track for the University of Tennessee and one of the annual highlights of the season was our dual meet with UCLA at Drake Stadium on the university’s campus. (I ran very well against UCLA’s runners, thank you). There really was no place that compared with California, a vast land of so many spectacular things. Unfortunately, there is still a vastness of things here, but many of them are spectacularly negative.” (05/07/26)
- Canada Is Quietly Putting War Into Your Portfolio
Source: Common Dreams
by Umer Azad“Canada is set to host the headquarters of the proposed Defence, Security, and Resilience Bank, or DSRB, a new multinational institution designed to mobilize tens of billions in financing for military and security projects among allied nations. In short, what we are seeing is the quiet normalization of something far more consequential: the permanent financialization of war. The structure being envisioned for DSRB closely resembles other multilateral financial institutions. It would raise capital on global markets, issue bonds, and extend loans to governments and defense companies. That means funding for military supply chains, weapons systems, and defense infrastructure would increasingly flow through financial markets rather than direct public expenditure. In doing so, war itself risks being transformed from a political decision subject to public scrutiny into a financial product embedded in portfolios.” (05/07/26)
- Trump’s Corruption Is Going to Sink Him
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen“Conditions are right for voters to stop turning a blind eye to his greed, grift, and gold leaf.” (05/07/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-corruption-irs-lawsuit-plane-crypto-scam-pardons
- Counter-Intuitive Econ
Source: Bet On It
by Alexander Craig“I want to defend the idea that economics has some counter-intuitive propositions to offer. It does depend on what ‘intuitive’ means, though. I think it’s fair to say that something is intuitive if someone without formal training in the area can think it through on their own. If it takes an economist re-framing the issue to show the answer makes sense, it’s not necessarily intuitive. In other words, economics can be made intuitive, but it takes effort and skill.” (05/07/26)
- Trump Leaves Ukraine’s Future to Europe
Source: Washington Monthly
by Tamar Jacoby“Can a fractious continent unite to win the war against Russia and secure democracy in Ukraine?” (05/07/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/05/07/trump-leaves-ukraines-future-to-europe/
- The false choice between creating abundance and constraining autocracy
Source: Niskanen Center
by Alexander Mechanick“Policy discourse in the United States today has a split personality. Many condemn how procedural rules thwart not only efforts to build — housing, energy, and more — but more generally keep presidents from achieving their policy ambitions and worsen our ‘vetocracy.’ Yet others lament how presidents are left too free to pursue their policy aims lawlessly or abusively. These concerns are often raised by the same commentators. Even though these discourses are largely about the same topic—the administrative procedures that constrain government action and govern judicial challenges to it — the two have proceeded almost entirely in parallel. The result is a bizarre discourse superposition, where the executive branch is simultaneously excessively and insufficiently constrained.” (05/07/26)
- Contra Everyone On Taste
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander“All discussion of aesthetics must in some sense be personal. So: young Scott was deeply disappointed to learn how restaurant critics worked. In his imagination, a critic’s assistant would deliver dishes to her house, so she wouldn’t know which restaurant it came from. Otherwise, the critic might let her preconceptions influence her judgment, and a restaurant’s reputation would become self-reinforcing. … Imagine how I felt when I actually read restaurant criticism. It was all stuff like ‘Oh, the ambience here is very nice; I had a great conversation with the chef who told me about how his childhood in Sardinia motivated new takes on traditional dishes.’ How can you be sure the chef’s personable manner isn’t influencing your impression of the food?! Haven’t you ever heard of the Pepsi Paradox in psychology? Aaargh!” (05/07/26)
- Cruising Toward Enslavement
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Steven Goldsmith“Much ink has been spilled, much podcast time expended on the machinations of the elite globalist class who war against our autonomy, who strive to enslave us through control of our health and financial assets and to depopulate us. All true. But we commoners cannot control what they try to do, cannot temper their sociopathy. What we can do is look at ourselves in the mirror and recognize how we have been disempowering ourselves, allowing our autonomy to be up for grabs; how we have been surrendering that which differentiates us from other animals — free will.” (05/07/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/cruising-toward-enslavement/
- A push for patient investing over easy money
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“Back in 2018, during his first term as president, Donald Trump called for a curb on a federal requirement that publicly traded firms report their performance every three months. The idea is to nudge both investors and corporations toward longer-term perspectives and focus less on a fluctuating stock price. This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled a plan that will allow such companies to provide reports every six months. In the intervening eight years, ever-faster algorithms have enabled warp-speed stock trading, inflating shareholder impatience and expectations of instantaneous information and returns. In 2021, a Cornell University study confirmed that ‘firms were actually becoming more short-term oriented across the market’ – a trend linked to the growing demand for more data and short-term projections for the investing public and markets.” (05/06/26)
- America’s Worst Appeals Court
Source: Law & Liberty
by Robert G Natelson“The Montana Supreme Court should serve as a cautionary tale about judicial oligarchy.” (05/07/26)
- There Is No Evidence the Trump Assassination Attempts Were Staged. People Still Believe They Were
Source: Wired
by David Gilbert“WIRED has looked at the main claims that conspiracy theorists point to when claiming both the Butler and Correspondents’ Dinner shootings were staged, and why none of the claims stand up to scrutiny.” (05/07/26)
- Minnesota Joins Wealth Tax Push—Despite Their Risks
Source: The Daily Economy
by John Phelan“Minnesota lawmakers are pursuing a wealth tax, despite evidence it will drive out taxpayers and erode the tax base.” (05/07/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/minnesotas-joins-wealth-tax-push-despite-their-risks/
- South Sudan, A Case Study in State Failure
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen“In 2011, the world welcomed its newest country. Fifteen years later, South Sudan is less a symbol of self-determination than a case study in state failure. Its politics remain dominated by factional strongmen, its economy is almost entirely dependent on oil, and the threat of renewed large-scale violence never quite recedes. For most Americans, it barely registers — just another distant tragedy filed away under ‘Africa.’ But South Sudan did not simply emerge from the mists of post-colonial history. It was, in no small part, a project of Washington.” (05/07/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/south-sudan-a-case-study-in-state-failure
- The Parasocial Style in American Politics
Source: Liberal Currents
by Alan Elrod“Our screens are two-way but we can easily forget that the people on the other end exist as more than characters for our enjoyment.” (05/07/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-parasocial-style-in-american-politics/
- Obliteration Ecocide from Gaza to Lebanon and Beyond
Source: Antiwar.com
by Dan Steinbock“Modern warfare in Gaza is no longer just counterinsurgency but systems-level destruction of the environmental and infrastructural substrate of life – water, soil, agriculture, energy, and urban continuity.” (05/07/26)
- Oliver Larkin vs. the Epstein State
Source: The American Prospect
by Maureen Tkacik“Oliver Larkin spent most of the 2024 election season spamming out ‘I’ll be blunt’ emails on behalf of Adam Schiff: ‘We had a massive fundraising list from the Trump impeachment, and I was up until 3 in the morning sending emails and texts. And in those first 24 hours, we raised like $1.6 or $1.7 million.’ Chained to his computer screens in a Deerfield Beach bungalow 3,000 miles from Schiff’s campaign headquarters, he began to feel disconnected from man’s innate feedback loops of longing and satisfaction. ‘Trump loved to single him out, he was attacking Schiff all the fucking time, every week, calling him ‘Pencil Neck’ or ‘Watermelon Head’ or ‘Shifty Schiff,’ and every time something like that happened it was like, this could raise ten thousand dollars, this could raise twenty thousand dollars,’ the candidate told the Prospect.” (05/07/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/05/07/oliver-larkin-jared-moskowitz-jeffrey-epstein-ron-desantis-florida/
- Will MAGA Come for Thomas Massie?
Source: The Dispatch
by David M Drucker“The unshakably conservative voters of northern Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District sent Rep. Thomas Massie to Congress 14 years ago because he promised to stick to his principles under pressure from the GOP establishment in Washington, D.C., and aggressively fight the man—the man back then being President Barack Obama. But grassroots Republicans may pull the plug on the libertarian iconoclast precisely because he insists on keeping that commitment, because Republicans here now like the man—President Donald Trump—and support a party establishment on Capitol Hill laboring to deliver almost everything he wants.” (05/07/26)
- A Symphony of Scandal
Source: Law & Liberty
by George Hawley“Honest politicians are all alike; every crook is crooked in his own fashion.” (05/07/26)
- Liberal Neutrality and How to Fight For It
Source: Liberalism.org
by Jacob T Levy“Defending liberal political norms doesn’t mean always reaching across the aisle. Sometimes, liberal neutrality means playing hardball.” (05/07/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/liberal-neutrality-and-how-to-fight-for-it
- Grand Theft Oil Futures
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“At this point it’s almost routine: Almost every time Donald Trump makes a major announcement about the Iran War, that announcement is preceded — sometimes by only a few minutes — by huge and hugely profitable bets in the oil market. … The Trump administration is making no real effort to crack down on whoever is trading using inside information, and these inside traders are operating with a complete sense of impunity, assured that they can get away with it. The stench of corruption is overwhelming. Yet aside from the raw corruption, these incidents also raise a larger question. The insiders ripped off the parties who sold futures to them at what turned out to be very unfavorable prices to the sellers. What broader damage does this kind of unchecked insider trading do?” (05/07/26)
- Church Report to FISA: Why Won’t Congress Stop the Surveillance State?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Jeffery L Degner“The Church Committee exposed sweeping abuses by America’s intelligence agencies 50 years ago. Section 702’s recent reauthorization suggests lawmakers are increasingly comfortable with expansive spying on American citizens.” (05/07/26)
- The Libertarian Angle, 05/07/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Jacob, Richard, and special guest Jim Bovard discuss why America continues to move in a bad direction.” (05/07/26)
- Underthrow Podcast, 05/07/26
Source: Underthrow
“The Only Way to Win is Not to Play.” (05/07/26)
- Rising, 05/07/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar on the potential for AI data centers to create numerous blue collar jobs, with some electricians reportedly making up to $260,000 a year.” (05/07/26)
- Half the Answer, episode 82
Source: Liberal Currents
“Dystopian Prisons, Progressive Messaging, and the 2026 Midterms.” (05/07/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/07/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“The Staggering Cost Of The Iran War.” (05/07/26)
- Capital Record, episode 298
Source: National Review
“Asymmetric Advantages for Human Flourishing.” (05/07/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/asymmetric-advantages-for-human-flourishing/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 05/07/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Spirals as Surprise Poll Shows Attacks on Pope Backfiring Badly.” (05/07/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210049/trump-rage-pope-backfires-poll-reveals-he-losing-fight-badly
- Try Liberty, episode 1
Source: Try Liberty
“Liberland: The freest nation on Earth?” (05/07/26)
- Advisory Opinions, 05/07/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Congress Did Something!” (05/07/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/congress-did-something/
- The Fifth Column, episode 556
Source: The Fifth Column
“In Which the 1% Protests the 1%, Mamdani Builds a Grocery Store, California Searches for a Governor, and Iran Has Questions.” (05/07/26)
https://www.wethefifth.com/p/masquerade-of-morons-episode-556
- Serious Trouble, 05/07/26
Source: Serious Trouble
“Don’t Use the Public Chatbot Lawyer.” (05/07/26)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/dont-use-the-public-chatbot-lawyer
- The Daily, 05/07/26
Source: New York Times
“What the End of Spirit Airlines Means for the Future of Flying.” (05/07/26)
- Max Rangeley Speech on Robotics, AI, and the Future of War
Source: Cobden Centre
“[E]ven with the developments in Ukraine and elsewhere, most people in the military underestimate the importance of robotics and AI. In the very near future, any military that does not have these technologies fully integrated will resemble those that attempted cavalry charges against machine guns in the early twentieth century.” (05/07/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/05/speech-in-tirana-on-robotics-ai-and-the-future-of-war/
- Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 05/07/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Steve Swedberg, Competitive Enterprise Institute ‘Spirit Airlines Bankruptcy.'” (05/07/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-05-07_zfw05042026.mp3
- The David Frum Show, 05/06/26
Source: The Atlantic
“How to Survive Losing a Child.” (05/06/26)
- Kibbe on Liberty, episode 384
Source: Free the People
“It’s Time to Give Privacy Rights an Update | Guest: Naomi Brockwell.” (05/06/26)
- TAC Right Now, 05/07/26
Source: The American Conservative
“Andrew Day and Harrison Berger talk to Ryan Grim of Drop Site News about signs of diplomatic progress with Iran, possible Israeli sabotage of negotiations, and the Iranian Lego videos. Recorded May 6, 2026.” (05/07/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tac-right-now-is-trump-nearing-an-iran-deal/
- Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael, 05/06/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
“Media Watchdog Project Censored Turns 50 Years Old! w/ Misch Geracoulis.” (05/06/26)